


A Little off the Top

by Empress_Of_Edenia



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Bonding, Canon Compliant, Established Relationship, F/M, Fluff, Haircuts, Makeover, Shidge are openly dating and have been since before the series began, pre established Shidge
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-31
Updated: 2019-08-31
Packaged: 2020-10-04 02:26:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,759
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20463497
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Empress_Of_Edenia/pseuds/Empress_Of_Edenia
Summary: They say beauty is pain, but for Pidge it's more like a pain in the ass. Shiro can only sympathize, and put his robot arm to good use.





	A Little off the Top

Shiro looked over the holographic copy of his latest strategies for what had to have been the millionth time.

“Hmm… no,” he muttered to himself. “Lance is at a complete disadvantage here. Maybe if I placed him up a bit higher…” He ran his finger across the holoscreen, dragging Lance’s avatar where he wanted it.

As Shiro rearranged, edited and revised his plans, he heard some shuffling footsteps behind him. He didn’t pay them any mind, at first. People had been coming and going all day today, seeing that there was much to do aboard the Castle of Lions even when the universe didn’t need saving. Shiro would get more work done if he just ignored it, and that’s what he continued to do.

But then he heard a particular pair of footsteps headed his way. Tiny ones, wearing big clunky shoes and stomping with all of their might. This and the little whispered curses under her breath gave it all away.

‘Uh oh,’ Shiro thought to himself. ‘I hope she isn’t coming to _me_ of all people to talk about computers.’

“Shiro,” Pidge said before he could even greet her. “I need your help.” 

“It’s not tech related, is it?” Shiro said, still more invested in his battle strategies than anything else.   


“No. It’s… well, it’s different,” Pidge said. She sounded awfully embarrassed.   


“I don’t follow,” Shiro answered. “Could you be more specific? Sorry, I’m in the middle of something, right now.”   


An annoyed, impatient breath escaped her lips. “Just turn around and look, okay?”   


Shiro peered over his shoulder with his arms crossed. A grin broke out over his face, twitching at the corners of his mouth as he tried not to laugh at his poor girlfriend. She stood there and glared up at him with bright red cheeks, her fists clenched at her sides. All of that long, beautiful hair she’d spent the last six months regrowing was now a tangled nest of wires, cables and assorted microchips. There were other things stuck in there, too, but Shiro wasn’t sure he wanted to know. 

“It’s not funny! Do you have any idea how hard it is to take care of this shit?” Pidge snapped.   


The anger on her face turned back into flustered embarrassment when she realized he didn’t have enough hair to relate.   


“I can imagine,” Shiro said when he finally fixed his face and went back to his straight-laced default expression.   


“Ugh,” Pidge groaned.   


She tried and failed to tug one of the cables from her ‘web,’ as Shiro wanted to call it, opting instead to fiddle with it as she explained herself. “I’ve been trying all morning and I just made it worse.”   


Shiro hit the ‘save’ button on his tablet before closing the program. Their next mission wasn’t until at least two days from now--so Allura told him. He could spare a few moments to help Pidge out.   


“Come on,” he said, ushering her to follow him.   


“Where are we going?” Pidge asked as she followed beside him.   


“I think it’d be better if we dealt with this in my room,” Shiro explained. “Just so you’ll feel more comfortable.” 

Pidge could probably tell that he wanted to save her further humiliation, but didn’t say anything about it. She only walked with him to his bedroom and sat down on the floor like she usually did when she was here.   


Shiro sat on the bed behind her, just to give himself some elevation.   


“You to have to sit very still.”   


“Why? What’re you going to do?” Pidge asked.   


“I don’t want to burn you,” Shiro said, waiting for his arm to heat up.   


Pidge nodded. She relaxed and sat as still as she could for him, her hands placed in her lap.   


When his arm was hot enough, but set to its lowest possible setting, Shiro leaned forward and began to drag his index finger through her hair. It’d be easier on them both to start by freeing some of these foreign objects, he thought.   


“How did this even happen?” he asked.   


“Fuck if I know,” she answered. “It was just one wire, at first. I swear, I was going to take care of it after I finished up in the lab… but then I forgot.”   


Shiro was starting to understand now. They both should’ve known that this was inevitable--only a matter of time before brushing and combing took a backseat to computer science. He undid the tight bundles that were tugging on her scalp. Her scalp was still glowering red afterward, but it would heal.   


“We’ve had back-to-back missions, lately,” Shiro said, “so I can’t blame you.”   


“Yeah,” Pidge said.   


She seemed relieved to hear that, and Shiro was relieved to see her unwind.   


Shiro detangled her nest of hair for another half hour, perhaps longer than that, engaging her in relaxed conversation all the while. Both to take her mind off of his prosthetic hand hovering so close to her skin and to fill the otherwise awkward silence in his room. The Castle of Lions didn’t come equipped with any televisions or radios like the ones found on Earth, so he had to provide the entertainment. It was working, he hoped. He could hear more and more of that sweet smile in her voice as the hour went by, any discomfort or irritability melting away.   


By the time Shiro finished, there was a pile of electrical bits, bobs, and matted knots sitting next to Pidge. He glanced at it, then looked back at Pidge’s head. He frowned at the random holes in her hair, where her dainty shoulders peeked through and showed off the back of her shirt. He tried not to think of Swiss cheese when he looked at it, but that’s all that came to mind.   


“I guess I can’t keep it long, huh?” Pidge tipped her head to look at him now that she could move around.   


“No. You look like a moth kicked your butt,” Shiro confessed.   


He knew how much she loved and missed her long hair but this didn’t look good on anybody, not even on her. 

Pidge sighed and wrapped her arms around her knees.   


“Alright,” she said after a pause.   


Shiro let her walk around for a minute so she could stretch her limbs before she sat back down in front of him. His arm stopped cooling off when she was ready, warming up yet again. He started to bring his fingertips towards her ear, only for Pidge to stop him.   


“Wait,” she said, putting her hand on his flesh arm. “I don’t want it that short again.”   


“Okay. How long should I leave it?” Shiro asked.   


Though to be honest, there wasn’t much left of it he could save.   


She pointed to the space between her shoulder and neck. “Can you cut it here, maybe?”   


Shiro smiled. “Sure, I can do that,” he said.   


In a smooth, seamless line, Shiro swept his finger across the salvageable remains of her hair. The ratty excess fell down her back in a clump, which he discarded into the pile with the rest of the trash. His room had turned into a barber shop by the time she was free, and it was worth it. Once he cut it to her preferred length, Shiro took the extra time to style it. It looked like it was trying to escape off of her head until he tamed it by smoothing his palm over the surface. There were still one or two stray hairs rebelling against him, but that was fine.   


“You’re pretty good at this for someone who’s never had long hair,” Pidge commented.   


“You remember my sisters, right?” Shiro asked as he wrapped the ends around his fingers and curled them inward.   


“Just barely,” Pidge admitted.   


It wasn’t anything personal, he understood.   


“I used to watch them give each other makeovers all the time,” he continued. “I’m still not an expert, but I think I’ve mastered the bowl cut look.”   


Pidge stiffened. “You’re not seriously giving me a bowl cut, are you?”   


Shiro chuckled in spite of himself. “Just kidding, ‘lina. I wouldn’t do that to you.”   


He tipped her head up so that he might kiss her forehead.   


“Fucking jerk,” she laughed, sitting still again while he spruced up her long sideburns. It was amazing how those came out unscathed, but not the rest of her hair.   


All Shiro had left to do was deal with her bangs. Pidge was obviously taking better care of those than the rest of her hair, likely the easiest part for someone with her schedule. He just smoothed them over until they were shiny again, touching up their natural curl and paying close attention to the one in the middle. It just wouldn’t be Pidge if those middle pieces didn’t curl up and over her little button nose, now would it?   


“Are you done?” Pidge asked when Shiro got up to look at her.   


He studied her with his arms crossed as they usually were, scanning for any detail he might’ve missed while chatting with her. But the longer Shiro stared, the more he realized that everything about this new look was perfect just the way it was. Pidge rocked it like no one else realistically could. It was still short, but the extra length had just the right amount of feminine charm. Hell, Shiro could say that it even made her seem a bit older. He was sure she’d love to hear that.   


“Wow,” Shiro finally said. He reached out his arms and pulled Pidge up to standing as she grabbed onto him. “You look really cute like this.”   


“Thanks,” Pidge said as she put her glasses back on. “For the, uh, haircut and helping me, I mean.”   


Shiro shook his head. “You don’t have to thank me for that, but you’re very welcome.”   


He led her to an Altean mirror in the corner of his room and let her see for herself. Shiro stood off to the side of her, but was still close enough to see how Pidge’s face lit up at her own reflection. It’d been so long since he really saw her admire her appearance or care about it at all. For a moment, Shiro imagined their days before the Kerberos mission, when sometimes she would show up at his parents’ house for a date, looking like she spent hours getting ready.   


“Come on,” Shiro said as he put that life behind him once again. “I’m sure someone’s going to need us.”   


**Author's Note:**

> Thanks to OlkarionPrincess for the help on this one. <3


End file.
